Category: Development

A higher education administrator was at a career crossroads. As she approached the standard retirement age, traditional career mapping suggested a linear path forward.

Strategic Foresight is the key to reframing our outdated, Industrial Age processes that are no longer effective in our Postnormal environment. One such antiquated process is Career Development.

In this volatile environment, people are searching for new ways to explore their options and plan their careers. However, employees must change the way they approach the situation if they are going to successfully move to new opportunities and thrive amidst our changing world. To chart a future-ready career path, there are three skills individuals can adopt: sense, mesh, transform.

We know what you’re probably thinking: “Wow! Quite the title for a post. They went for it,” or “These guys have finally lost it… they’re nuts!” Well, we might be nuts. But that’s not the point. The point is that it’s time to f_____ culture. Of course, we’re not referring to any group’s national or societal culture. Rather, we’re talking about the system of shared values, beliefs and assumptions that governs how people behave within a company. You know, the…

This case study showcases the value, in terms of practical impact and tangible outcomes, that foresight drives in personal career development.

Strategic Foresight is the key to reframing our outdated, Industrial Age processes that are no longer effective in our Postnormal environment (Sardar, 2010). One such antiquated process is career development.

The Futures School founders Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer authored the chapter “Disney’s Workforce of the Future: From HR Initiative to Organizational Culture” in Palgrave Macmillan’s Futures Thinking and Organizational Policy: Case Studies for Managing Rapid Change in Technology, Globalization and Workforce Diversity.

In order to understand why I have such a strong passion for foresight, it’s helpful to get a glimpse into my background. For 15 years, I worked internationally in the field of Marketing, Innovation and Business Strategy across different FMCG, Finance and Entertainment blue-chip companies (AB InBev, Societe Generale, Disney), as well as successfully growing start-ups. Most recently, I held a Consumer Strategy role at The Walt Disney Company. Working in a highly analytic strategy job yet experiencing a passion…

When doing this for a Future of Work project, I was able to identify multiple key points that struck me as being critical for setting us up for success in the face of the the ambiguous challenges of the future.  

We are no stranger to the question, “Do you have a case study about X foresight work you conducted with X organization?” While over the years we’ve had a variety of briefs detailing transformation in strategy, city development, innovation, change, and culture via our foresight toolkit, we did not have a start-to-finish case study in writing. 2019 is the year that changes!